Returning
by Sylmarien
Summary: Natalia is left alone after Luke's surprising return. Retiring to her room to grieve and remember Asch she's about to get a surprise of her own.


**Heyla peoples, I have only recently discovered the Tales series but have totally fallen in love with it. My fav series is Symphonia but Abyss comes close second. I don't mind the end to Abyss but it is kinda sad for Natalia and no one else –everyone else gets a happy ending but she loses Asch so I wrote this story to fix that. I call ignorance on the power of the seventh fonon and Lorelei –I have only watched the anime and not yet played the game and the anime doesn't go into too much detail on fonons etc so forgive me if I do something blatantly against canon. If I do, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Other than that. enjoy **

_Tue rei ze croa riou tue ze  
Croa riou ze tue riou rei neu riou ze  
Va rei ze tue neu tue riou tue croa  
Riou rei croa riou ze rei va ze rei  
Va neu va rei va neu va ze rei  
Croa riou croa neu tue rei croa riou ze rei va  
Rei va neu croa tue rei rei_

Tear sang for her friends the song that symbolised the covenant between Lorelei and Yulia, all the while wishing in her heart for the one person who could no longer hear it. As she sang, she was unaware that at that moment her voice echoed across the world as Lorelei acknowledged the debt he owed her and her friends for his freedom.

It had been two years since the time of his release, a blink of the eye to him but a significant span of time to the humans who had aided him. In that time she had sung the Fonic Hymn many times as she remembered the past and so Lorelei too had not forgotten. Looking down at the two who slept, wrapped in his power he decided it was time for them to wake, they had each healed enough to finish their recovery on their own. With a thought he sent them once more to Auldrant and then waited to see what would happen.

Unaware of Lorelei's actions Tear sang on. _Luke_, she thought, _the world you created is so beautiful, and yet, you're not here…_ she clung to the promise Luke had made her two years ago, to return, but somewhere in her heart she knew that if he could have returned he would have done so by now. She finished the song.

"Let's head back." Jade said after a moment, adjusting his glasses. "The valley is dangerous at night." He turned to leave.

"That's true," Guy agreed, glancing at Natalia who nodded. They turned to follow Jade with Anise and Mieu close behind. None of them looked back, leaving Tear in peace to say her farewells to Luke one more time.

Tear was grateful her friends understood her so well. As much as she loved them she needed privacy in this moment. Staring out at Hod she thought about the promise she'd made, to wait forever for him to come back and felt a sense of peace steal over her. Even if he never came, she would keep her promise. She would wait. With one final glance at the horizon she turned away to follow her friends but a second later she froze. Had she really seen that? Were her eyes lying to her?

Slowly, not daring to hope she spun back round, her eyes searching for the person she thought she'd seen. As she gazed out across the field of flowers a figure walked towards her through it. Her breath caught in her chest as he hands came to her mouth in disbelief.

She took a few stunned steps towards the man who stopped a few feet away from her. "What are you doing here?" she whispered, unable to believe the apparition in front of her was real.

"This place has a nice view of Hod." He said, the words hitting her like a blow. "Besides, I promised didn't I?"

Tear couldn't deny the truth any more, with shaking legs she took the final steps that brought her within touching distance of him. She reached out a trembling hand and gasped when she felt real flesh under the cloth. His hair was long now, like Asch's had been but his eyes, his expression, the way he wore his sword all told her without doubt who it really was.

"Luke?" Tears were running down her face, her heart simultaneously breaking for Natalia and rejoicing that at least one of the two had returned.

"Hi Tear, sorry you had to wait so long." Luke took the hand she'd left trembling on his shoulder and pulled her into a hug. She gasped as the dream she'd had for two years came true and then threw her arms around him, hugging him as if he'd disappear again if she let go.

Suddenly the rest of the gang was standing around them, Natalia and Anise laughing and crying while Jade simply had a small smile on his face and Guy didn't seem to know what to do with himself. Anise solved the problem of what to do next by hurling herself at Luke who caught her one handed, Natalia quickly following to hug both him and Tear from the other side.

It took a while for things to calm down after that but eventually Jade reminded them again about the dangers of staying in the valley at night and they quickly made their way back to Tear's room at the Inn. Everyone ended up sitting or lying wherever there was room as they caught Luke up on everything he'd missed in his two year absence.

As they talked Natalia stayed on the periphery of the conversation, adding a comment here and there but her mind was occupied elsewhere. Aware of the elephant in the room the rest of the group avoided the subject of Luke's solo return and instead concentrated on bringing him up to speed, leaving Natalia mostly to her thoughts. Tear planned to take her aside later but she didn't want to leave Luke so soon and she didn't think the princess was ready to talk yet anyway. Still she kept an eye on her and when, after several hours of talking, reminiscing and fun when she pleaded exhaustion the rest of the group took that as the signal to disperse to their separate rooms and say goodnight. Tear made up the bed and practically ordered Luke to share it with her, both of them blushing bright red but Tear forestalled anything happening just yet by getting him some night clothes and then going to check on Natalia while he changed. As she closed her bedroom door Tear hoped Natalia hadn't gone straight to sleep, she needed to make sure her friend wasn't hiding her pain from the rest of the group in order not to spoil Luke's return. She would make sure Natalia had a shoulder to cry on if she needed it.

Natalia closed her door and then rested her head against it for a moment. _Tear will probably be coming over soon_ she thought, the woman was too caring and to observant not to know and partially understand what Natalia was going through right now. To be honest she was overjoyed at Luke's return and beyond happy for both him and Tear, she didn't doubt that they both loved each other, that was just plain obvious. She wished them all the luck in the world but at the same time, nothing could alleviate the pain that ripped through her heart when she realised he was the only one coming back.

She knew Asch had died that day, she'd understood what it meant when Luke had received that burst of energy and fonons –that Asch had sent it to him as a final farewell. But that hadn't stopped her from hoping, just as Tear had all those two long years that somehow she might be wrong and he'd survived. Now, her final hopes were dashed. If Asch was going to come back, was going to keep the promises _he'd_ made then he would have returned by now, would probably have come earlier than Luke just to spite him. That thought almost made her smile but it didn't stop the tears, "Asch" she whispered as they wet the floor by the door.

"You called?" Movement behind her.

Natalia whirled around and then collided with the door as she took an involuntary step back.

"You can't be real." She shook her head, closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the lie before her. "You died, I'm hallucinating, you're not here, I'm dreaming this because I saw Luke come back and I wished he was you." Her fists hit the door behind her with each sentence, as if to emphasise the truths she was speaking. She opened her eyes. He was still there!

"Natalia," the figure said, getting up off the couch he'd been sprawled on and coming over. "You're a terrible liar. Would a hallucination be able to do this?" he reached down, took the fist she'd been beating against the door and kissed the fingers she uncurled reflexively in his grasp.

Natalia flinched at the physical contact –this could not be happening. But she couldn't deny what her senses were telling her. His touch was the same, strong and firm but gentle where he held her. The sound of his voice was the same, cold but speaking words that belied the frost. He looked the same, his face as remote as it had always been but his eyes burning with the emotion he didn't try so hard to hide around her. The smell of soap, leather and metal wreathed the air about her, twining with Asch's own personal scent, no dream could be this accurate.

Asch saw the indecision in her eyes and released her hand. Natalia's breath hitched when he let go, her hand falling to her side as her fingers clenched once more into a fist. Sighing –she could be so stubborn sometimes –Asch put a hand on her shoulder and took her chin, making her look at him. "I'm real Natalia. I'm back just the same as Luke I just chose not to make my reappearance as pointlessly dramatic as he did."

At this Natalia had to smile, "So appearing in my room at night, without telling me is meant to be less dramatic?"

Asch paused at that, "I didn't get so many people all worked up." He finally grumbled. It would be all the admission she'd get. Funnily enough, it was that that finally convinced her vehemently in denial brain that all this was actually happening. Only Asch would get grumpy about having something in common with Luke.

"It's really you." She said, echoing Tear's actions from earlier by reaching out to touch Asch and gasping when she felt warm cloth and muscle beneath her hand. "You're back!" finally she allowed herself to believe it was true. "How did it happen?"

Asch let her go and sighed. "I'm not really clear on the details, I wasn't exactly conscious for all this. But near as I can tell, after I sent Luke all the energy and Fonons I had left I passed out and got very close to dying but didn't quite make it before you guys defeated Van and released Lorelei. With Luke coming apart anyway because of being a replica Lorelei returned the fonons that had been stolen from me to make him and then made a completely new body for him out of seventh fonons and what was left –like a much better, complete version of Jade's replica process I guess. Anyway even once that was done I was still almost dead so Lorelei put me to sleep to heal. The next thing I know is he's telling me most of this and then I'm waking up on the beach next to Luke beneath that cliff Tear was singing on.

I left before he could see me, but I watched him climb up and met Tear and then I followed you back to the Inn, figured out which room was yours and waited for everyone to go to bed. The rest you know."

Natalia looked at him with wide eyes. "Lorelei did all this?"

"Yeah, I guess he must have felt he owed us. He told Luke to tell Tear as much."

"Wow, I wish I could thank him." Natalia rested her head against his chest, her hand curling into the fabric of his clothes. "He brought you back to me."

Asch put his arms around her, holding her close. "I had some promises to keep." He said softly. "But right now though I think we need to get you to bed, I can feel and see your legs trembling Natalia. You're exhausted."

Natalia sighed, but didn't move. "What will you do now?" she asked instead.

"I don't really know at the moment." Asch admitted. "Travel for a while I guess, see what I've missed these past two years."

"And then?"

Asch smiled, knowing she couldn't see. "I'll have to wait and see."

Natalia was silent for a moment but finally nodded. "You know I travel all over Auldrant keeping the peace between the two empires. I could use a companion who knows how to handle trouble."

Asch was touched. Even after everything they'd been through and what he'd done she still wanted to work with him to keep their shared promise. "Making sure war never happens?"

"Yes."

"I'll join you once Luke goes off with Tear. I refuse to be around while everyone's being sappy over him."

Natalia pulled away just enough to look up at him sternly. "You _will_ let your parents know you're alive and well though won't you?"

Asch thought of the people who'd welcomed him even after he'd rejected them once before and nodded. "Yes."

She sighed. "Okay then, but at least stay for tonight. You can leave before he gets up in the morning."

Asch levelled a questioning stare at her which she returned solemnly. "It's been two years Asch and I've had a lot of time to think." She took a breath, "I love you Asch. You. Not Luke. It took me a while to separate you in my head after we found out the truth but I'm not confused any longer." She took his face in her hands, willing him to believe her. "I spent most of my life without you and then just when I found you again you disappeared. Now you're here, _again_ and I need you to spend at least one night with me before you leave _again_." she lowered her eyes, "Just hold me so I know you're there." She whispered.

Asch looked down at her golden hair and felt his resistance vanish. It had been so long since they were comfortable with each other, so long since they'd last touched in trust and friendship. He'd loved her since childhood, struggled to push her away when the met again as adults and watched her confuse him with another over and over again. Now finally she was telling him she loved _him_, with no hint of doubt in her voice or eyes. It was more than he'd ever hoped for after that terrible day when he'd returned home to see her with his replica. "Of course." He said, and released her. "Go change." He said when she gave him a questioning look.

She nodded. "You too, do you have anything to change into?"

Asch shook his head, "I'll be fine in my pants and shirt." He replied.

"Ok." Natalia collected her night clothes from her pack and went into the bathroom to change. Asch removed his overcoat, tunic and boots and sat down on the bed to wait. Natalia returned in short order after brushing her teeth and he went in to do the same. When he got back she was already in bed, sitting up but with her eyes threatening to close at any moment.

Smiling at her mistrust he got into bed next to her. "Lie down Natalia, before you fall down and hit your head." He said."I'll still be here when you wake up." Yawning she complied, snuggling in closer as he put his arms around her, tucking her under his chin as she sighed happily. "Your warm." She said sleepily.

"So are you." He replied.

"Hmmm." Was all he got in response as sleep quickly took Natalia under.

Pulling up the blankets to cover them both Asche made sure both his and Natalia's weapons were within reach in case of an emergency before closing his eyes and surrendering to sleep as well.

Tear held her breath as she quietly crept down the hall, doing her best not to make any sound. She couldn't quite believe what she'd heard but her heart was almost bursting with happiness anyway. Asche had returned too! She'd left just after he'd explained how that had happened, not wanting to intrude on anything personal now that she knew Natalia would be fine. As she opened her door she saw that Luke already in bed but was still awake.

"How is Natalia?" he asked.

Tear smiled in sincere joy, "She's going to be just fine." She said. "Just fine." And with that, she changed into her own night clothes, brushed her teeth and snuggled up to Luke –much as Natalia was doing to Asch at that moment –and together they drifted off into sleep, dreaming of the bright future ahead and what it might bring.


End file.
